NIOS Ethernet

[Altera_Forum]

Hi guys. 

I faced with a problem and i do not know how to handle it.  I have an evaluation board Cyclon III FPGA Development Kit. In examples, which came with CD,there is no example project,which contains TSE- Triple Speed Ethernet. So i have downloaded HW Design from here:  http://www.altera.com/support/examples/nios2/exm-net-std-de.html After Generation and Compilation in Quartus 9.1 Web Edition l build the project in NIOS IDE and to this project l add the TCP/IP stack(lwip). Do not ask me why lwIP? There are some resons. When i try to compile this project(in NIOS IDE) i meet the messages, which tells me that there are no some rules in makefile.  Anyone can help me in this issue?What is the problem?  Thanks,Slava

[Altera_Forum]

This example is really outdated. If you go to the kit's page (http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3.html) on Altera's site, you can download the latest documents here: ftp://ftp.altera.com/outgoing/devkit/cycloneiii_3c120_dev_kit-v9.0.2.exe 

The standard example here includes the Ethernet interface.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  This example is really outdated. If you go to the kit's page (http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3.html) on Altera's site, you can download the latest documents here: ftp://ftp.altera.com/outgoing/devkit/cycloneiii_3c120_dev_kit-v9.0.2.exe The standard example here includes the Ethernet interface.  --- Quote End ---    That download includes the Ethernet interface for lwIP or simply the latest TSE interface? AFAIK Altera completely dropped support for lwIP 2 years ago or more.  However, I provided a TSE driver and an lwIP example for the latest release of lwIP (1.3.2). See: http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23787  Note that lwIP 1.4.0-RC1 (Release Candidate 1) has recently been released.  There's nothing wrong with lwIP for NIOS II - I have 2 products completed with the Cyclone III and lwIP. I've yet to see any documentation as to why Interniche is a better option for TCP/IP under NIOS II than lwIP is.  Bill

[Altera_Forum]

Yes sorry, I forgot about the lwIP part. You are right, the Altera design examples don't use lwIP anymore, they all use Interniche. 

For the hardware part I still recommend that you take the project from the link I gave though.

[Altera_Forum]

It's also not a bad idea to build an Interniche-based program and prove out the hardware and driver. If a demo runs well then it's safe (or safer) to move to lwIP. If an Interniche-based program can't run, neither will an lwIP-based one. 

 Bill

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you,Bill, but in your solution( if i use it as a basic), still i must to use by OS. 

Or no?  Thanks,Slava

[Altera_Forum]

The example I provided runs as-is without an OS using a polling mode. I actually have developed 4 products that use this polling mode, although I've used a cooperative (not preemptive) OS to manage application threads. lwIP runs in one thread polling but gives up the processor when there is nothing to do. Therefore the callbacks from lwIP all are in the same thread. 

 Bill